Mr. Newlywed and the Flying TB Machine

How do you, in good conscience, hop on a flight, a large tuna can, basically, and allow yourself to potentially infect hundreds of passengers with a contagious (and potentially fatal) disease?

Undoubtedly you’ve heard the story of a man who did just that. This is the guy who flew to Greece to get married, knowing that he was infected with tuberculosis, and once he arrived was notified that it was a highly contagious form of the disease that is resistant to most forms of treatment. Because he knew he might be turned away if he tried to fly directly into the U.S., he flew to Canada and then drove into the U.S. so as to avoid detection by authorities. In other words, he willfully exposed hundreds of people to this form of TB.

I recently read Mountains Beyond Mountains, the well-written story by Tracy Kidder about the life of Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer treats patients worldwide for a highly drug-resistant form of TB. It’s his life work to stop the spread of this disease and help save the lives of hundreds of people around the globe. And, while the Centers for Disease Control is hopeful that Mr. Newlywed may not have infected others around him, it was an incredibly stupid thing to have done.